George Stone marine services program doesn’t just fill void, it’s creating careers

Christian Brown was always around boats growing up, helping friends and family repair, maintain and clean their watercrafts.

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He didn’t have to go far to ensure he could turn that passtime into a career.

“I just enjoy being around the marine industries, and anything related to boats I’m interested in,” said Brown, who plans to graduate from George Stone Technical College’s Marine Service Technologies Program in December.

The 19-year-old hopes to work at one of the local marine dealerships or maybe even at Birdon, an Australian shipbuilding company that will may bring about 2,000 jobs to the Port of Pensacola next fall.

“Whether it’s building large ships for a company like Birdon or, after the vessels are built, rigging them with engines or electronics, I’m interested in doing that type of work,” said Brown, a Washington High School graduate who enrolled in the Marine Service Technologies Program in August 2025.

Graduates of the 1,350-hour program have a 100% job placement rate and 96% completion rate, said Stefan Schmitt, the program’s instructor for the past 18 years. Pay in the career field starts out around $20 to $25 an hour with annual salaries topping out around $80,000 or more a year.

It’s also an open enrollment program, Schmitt said, explaining students can enroll at any time there’s an opening.

“We run six different programs for students at all different levels. At any given time, I can have brand new students in my class along with students who have been here for six or eight months, plus the students working out in the field in our co-op program,” Schmitt said of the program which has about 20 to 23 students at any given time.

The Marine Service Technologies Program’s different educational components include:

• Marine rigors, which introduces students to the basics of the marine industry, safety, tools, electrical, two-stroke theory, trailers, etc.,
• Four-stroke engine theory and maintenance
• Laptop/Marine Service, which combines four-stroke engine technology and basic computer systems
• Inboards engines and stern drives
• Drive training
• Diesel engines

The Marine Service Technologies Program takes a little over a year to complete and the cost is covered by the Florida Department of Education’s Open Door Grant Program, more commonly known as Last Dollar Grant Program, which allows Florida residents to enroll in some GSTC programs for free.

Twenty-one of the technical college’s 25 programs qualify for the Last Dollar Grant Program, said GSTC Principal Stephen Brooks.

“The program starts out as an entry-level program. My goal is to meet the students’ goals, whether it’s going into a career field or if it’s a hobby-type thing. We start at the very basics. I take it to the very minimum and take it up to advanced electronics,” Schmitt said, noting the program is demanding.

“It’s on the student. It’s not on me,” he said. “They have to be engaged with everything that is going on.”

The program also has a waitlist with up to about 30 students sometime waiting up to a year to get in.

“And the students wait, which is amazing to me,” Schmitt added.

Choosing to wait is no surprise to Brown and other students who credit Schmitt with the program’s success.

“He teaches us everything about boat motors. I used to work at Legendary Marine here in Pensacola and a lot of the guys I worked with there are graduates of this program. Those guys are now master techs,” said Brown, who believes Schmitt is probably the best marine services technologies instructor in the state.

Pensacola residents Bryan Nava and Landen Carstens were on the program’s waiting list and agree with Brown. Both started the program in March.

“I learned a lot about the components of a motor, how it functions and how it all works together. …Mr. Schmitt is a great instructor. It’s his approach and everything – allowing us to be hands-on, giving us opportunities to make mistakes and telling us what’s right after the fact,” said Nava, 24.

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Carstens also appreciates Schmitt’s teaching techniques.

“I wasn’t expecting it to be as hands-on so quickly and I really like that. Literally, the first week we were already working on engines,” said the 20-year-old Carstens. “I’ve always wanted to be in the marine mechanics industry. I just like being close to the water.”

Marine Service Technologies Program graduates earn Yamaha Maintenance certificates. The manufacturer, along with Mercury Marine and Suzuki are program sponsors, which is evident in the classroom/bay that is filled with donated marine motors and other gear from different manufacturers.

“We have a lot of sponsorships through the manufacturers. And we have relationships with the dealers throughout our area including those in the Panhandle, Alabama and Mississippi,” Schmitt said.

Equipment and engines are also purchased with grant funds, including a recent $120,000 Perkins Equipment Modernization grant.

Along with finding local employment, program graduates work at manufacturer dealerships across the country including Maryland, Nebraska, South Florida, Mississippi and Alabama.

“We are Yamaha Marine’s No. 1 school in job placement, out of a 110 or 120 schools in the country. We place more students than any other school they support,” Schmitt said, adding the skills that students acquire in the Marine Service Technologies Program are transferrable to large shipbuilders like Birdon and Ingalls.

Also, employability skills like being on-time and dependable are key and emphasized in his classes.

“The electrical, the troubleshooting, all those different skills we teach here are transferrable out into any career related to the marine industry. I never consider my student going out to a job. I consider them going out into a career,” he said.

“…The career field is so expanded that the shipbuilders, the manufacturers, the dealerships, even Pensacola ferries and all the different companies that we have – everything they learn in here can expand to that. It’s wide open for the student.”

He said some veterans even enroll in the program – as a hobby – and decide they want to pursue a second career in the marine service industry.

The program also attracts dual-enrollment high school students.

“Usually, we have about five or six high school juniors or seniors a year in the program. The majority of those will continue the program, as adults, after they graduate,” Brooks said.

Brooks also praised Schmitt, who has over 40 years’ experience in the marine service technologies industry.

“I started basically as my students started – scraping the bottom of the boat. I’m self-taught basically, I never had an opportunity for an education like this. I’ve run businesses and owned my own business,” said Schmitt, who started as a laborer at a marina on the Mississippi River in Illinois.

Mary Lett is the Youth Development Reporter for the Pensacola News Journal. She can be reached at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: George Stone marine services program doesn’t just fill void, it’s creating careers

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Reporting by Mary Lett, Pensacola News Journal / Pensacola News Journal

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This story was originally published September 20, 2026 at 5:01 AM.